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35th Congress, \ HOUSE OF EEPRESENTATIVES. \ Report 
\st Session. \ ( No. 298. 

BENJAMIN U. HYAM. 



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April 17, 1858. 

Mr. Curtis, from the Committee on Military Affairs, made the following 

REPORT. 

Tlie Committee on Blilitary Affairs, to tvhom luas referred the memorial 
of Bevjamin D. Hyam, have had the same under consideration, and 
submit the foUoiving report : 

The memorialist presents that he was a clerk in the Quartermaster's 
Department of the United States army, in the year 1847, in the em- 
ploy of Captain A. R. Hatzel, of the United States army. That he 
accompanied the army to Mexico, during the war which was then 
pending, making some stay at Brazos Santiago, and was at Vera Cruz 
during the siege, capture and occupancy of that city by our American 
troops until October 31, 1847. That on several occasions, and for 
many days at each point, he was called on to bear arms and do mili- 
tary duty in apprehension of attack from Mexican forces ; and that 
during the whole time he was exposed to the diseases and dangers of 
a campaign in the country of a belligerent foe ; and that he is there- 
fore entitled to the bounty granted to soldiers who served in the Mexi- 
can war. 

If the petitioner were regularly enrolled and mustered into the ser- 
vice, and served for a period of fourteen days as a soldier, proof of these 
f^icts would, in the opinion of the committee, bring the memorialist 
within the provision of existing laws ; but occasional rallies of the 
various employes of the army have not been regarded in the same 
light as those taking on themselves all the hardships, duties, and ex- 
posures incident to the regular, volunteer, or enlisted soldier. Con- 
tractors, clerks, wagon-masters, and many other persons are necessary 
to the army ; but they are hired at different and better wages ; have 
more control of their own stay or departure, and generally find better 
accommodations than those who are under the slender compensation, 
plain ration, and " rules and regulations" of the United States army. 
While clerks received fifty or one hundred and fifty dollars a month, 
volunteers received only seven or eight dollars a month. There was a 
radical difference, therefore, in the classes of service, and the govern- 
ment has therefore, at all times, perserved a difference in making 
acknowledgments and rewards. 

There may be cases of extraordinary merit which would present 
occasion for including a clerk within all favors bestowed on soldiers ; 
but although this is a case of much merit, it does not, in the opinion of 
your committee, justify a departure from a reasonable and wholesome 
rule. 



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